Consecutive slashes in URI

[Anon]

I've looked and looked for the answer with no luck! This question is so PHP 101, I'm surprised I never found an answer.

Apache will return allow a web visitor to request:

http://www.fakewebsite.com/directory1/index.html

as

http://www.fakewebsite.com/directory1///////////index.html

if someone requested it that way. The multiple slashes after the first slash are ignored. On a

$theuri = getenv('REQUEST_URI');

type call, however the

http://www.fakewebsite.com/directory1///////////index.html

request would return a value for $theuri of

/directory1///////////index.html

instead of the desired

/directory1/index.html

which is frustrating.

What's the best way to get a return of just one slash per spot in PHP?

Thanks in advance.

[Anon]

$cooked_uri = ereg_replace('//+', '/', $raw_uri);

might do the trick (replace any sequence of 2-or-more slashes with a single slash.